How Could You? Hall of Shame-Canada kinship care -Child Death UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Edmonton, Canada, 26-year-old kinship care provider of six “high needs” children pleaded guilty to manslaughter of her four-year-old niece on Monday, October 17, 2011.

She ” was awarded custody of her brother’s six high-needs children — the youngest being three months and the oldest aged seven — by Alberta Children and Youth Services in August 2008.

The children had previously lived on the Buffalo Lake Métis Settlement 200 kilometres northeast of Edmonton and were apprehended by the courts in July 2007 after it was determined the biological parents were incapable of caring for them.”

“The woman, her common-law husband and the children lived in a house paid for by the province in west Edmonton.”

“On Jan. 13, 2009, the husband called emergency personnel to the home. They found the girl, two weeks from her fifth birthday, dead on the floor of her bedroom, clothed only in a diaper.

The statement does not indicate how the girl died, but an autopsy revealed the girl suffered a severe brain injury caused by tremendous blunt force, three or four days prior to her death.

The autopsy also showed extensive bruising on the girl’s head, chest, legs, arms, face and neck. She also had two fractured ribs.

Instead of getting medical help, the aunt tried to treat her niece at home with children’s cough syrup.”

“A doctor concluded that if the girl had received prompt medical attention it’s possible her life could have been saved.

Shortly after the statement was submitted, a sentencing hearing began before Associate Chief Justice John Rooke.

Prosecutor Mark Huyser-Wierenga recommended the woman serve 12 years in prison while defence lawyer Lisa Trach argued the sentence should be limited to time served.

Child abuse expert Dr. Melanie Lewis testified Monday afternoon that the little girl’s body and face were covered in bruises when she was found by paramedics.

Some of the bruises looked like finger marks. Two of the child’s ribs were broken, and her lips were black from dehydration. Lewis believes the pre-schooler was hit in the head repeatedly.

“If intervention had come in a timely fashion, the outcome may have been altered,” she testified.”

Another Rubberstamped Homestudy

“A psychological assessment report, obtained by CBC News from the defence with permission of the accused, revealed the woman was raised in an abusive home where drugs, alcohol and solvents were used regularly.

The woman had developed an addiction to painkillers by the time she was 13.

At age 24, she was entrusted by the province to take custody of her brother’s high-needs children under the province’s “Kinship Care” program, which aims to house children with family members.

“She came in as a young parent, having no experience as a parent, taking on these troubled children with a distorted sense of competency,” psychologist Les Block wrote in his assessment.

“Taking on such an onerous undertaking seems unrealistic and impractical, given her relative inexperience in parenting, her young age, unresolved personal problems, unstable spousal circumstances and substance abuse problems.

“The six children had special needs and would be taxing to even qualified foster parents,” he said.”

“There was minimal actual contact from Alberta Child and Family Services, and no respite or assistance with the children.”

Edmonton woman admits killing niece, 4
[CBC 10/17/11]

“The woman, 26, was originally charged with second-degree murder in the four-year-old girl’s death, but pleaded guilty to the lesser offence in Court of Queen’s Bench on Monday morning.”

“The woman was unemployed at the time and the children’s expenses and rent were paid for by the government. Over the 2008 Christmas holidays, one of the children visited his biological parents and returned home with the news that the family would be getting back together.”

“”(His) statements to his siblings had a disruptive effect on the other children,” according to an agreed statement of facts. The girl who later died was particularly bothered and began to rebel against her aunt.”

“The child died of cranial trauma.

“Her symptoms over time included lethargy, vomiting, incontinence; ultimately (the child) lapsed into a coma.”

The facts state that no medical assistance was called for in the three to four days the child suffered through the head injury. The aunt attempted to treat the child herself by giving her cough syrup and scooping vomit from her mouth using a T-shirt.”

“The woman has been in custody twice since her arrest in Jan. 2009. She has been behind bars for a total of about two years and three months. ”

Edmonton aunt convicted of manslaughter in death of foster child
[Vancouver Sun 10/17/11 by Ryan Cormier]

Update:

Defense
Defense lawyer Lisa Trach told a judge at the killer’s Court of Queen’s Bench sentencing hearing on Thursday “Alberta Children and Youth Services “set her up for this type of offence.””

“Trach then told Associate Chief Justice John Rooke that a message needs to be sent to the province about its “role” in the death regarding “assistance not being given” and her client being ill-equipped to be a foster parent.

“You better be watching who you give these children to,” is the message Trach recommended needs to be given.

The defence lawyer said her client “lived a life full of abuse from a young age” and she “did not have the tools” to care for children, “never mind six children.”

Rooke noted he is not conducting an inquiry into the province’s handling of the foster care case and pointed out that the killer foster mom wasn’t “lashing out” at the system at the time of the deadly attack, but had “lashed out at the person she was 15 years earlier.”

Prosecution

“Crown prosecutor Mark Huyser-Wierenga said Monday he is seeking a sentence of 12 years in prison, less approximately four and a half years worth of pre-trial custody.

Huyser-Wierenga said it is “aggravating” the woman left her badly injured niece “languishing” for several days without seeking help, calling it “very serious neglect.”

Trach reiterated Thursday that she is asking for a sentence of time served followed by “lengthy” probation.”

Psychologist

“The defence’s first witness in the sentencing hearing is psychologist Leslie Block, who compiled a 27-page psychological report detailing the killer’s drug abuse problems, mental health issues and lack of parenting skills.

In the report, Block reveals the woman had a dysfunctional, abuse-filled upbringing and began abusing drugs at 13. As well, he diagnosed her as suffering from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and personality problems.

Block noted the woman agreed to take care of her brother’s six children at the urging of Alberta Children and Youth Services and she received funding and housing.”

Killer foster mom to blame, but so is the province: Lawyer
[Edmonton Sun 10/20/11]

If this province wants to prevent this tragedy in the future, they had better change their approval process. The trial should be about her actions, but there needs to be major changes in social services as well. We cringe to think how many other children are at risk.

Update 2: The children were Aboriginal. “According to documents entered as exhibits in court this week, in May 2008 child welfare workers identified six siblings, who ranged in age from a newborn baby girl to a seven-year-old boy, as children at risk. The family was homeless, the mother addicted to crack cocaine. In July, the children were apprehended, then given into the guardianship of their aunt.

The children had complex medical and behavioural problems, caused by prenatal exposure to crack, and their unstable home lives. Caring for six such kids could have overwhelmed even a trained, experienced caregiver. SB was a 24-year-old who’d scarcely completed Grade 9. She had no job, no home, no child care experience. According to the psychologist’s report submitted at her sentencing hearing, she was 13 when her mother got her hooked on codeine, Gravol, and marijuana. The report says SB was physically abused and neglected as a child, both by her mother, and her mother’s various male partners. Her father was an addict who apparently froze to death outside the inner-city Bissell Centre in 2003. They were her only parenting role models.

At the time she was given custody of the children, she was in a long-term physically abusive relationship with a boyfriend who had his own criminal past.

Under normal child welfare rules, a new foster parent should never be given more than two children to care for. But in the interests of keeping the siblings together, Métis Settlements Child and Family Services, which handled this case, determined those rules needn’t apply because this was a kinship placement.

At first, the children were housed in a series of hotels and motels. Finally, child welfare found a five-bedroom house in west Edmonton, and rented it for SB, picking up the $2,100 monthly rent.

Records show SB asked for beds and dressers, toys and swim passes for the children. She asked for bus tickets and taxi vouchers, so she could take them to their medical appointments. She asked for weekend respite care. To judge by the documents, SB seems to have been sincerely interested in rescuing her nieces and nephews from the kind of hellish childhood she endured.

She got little support. Records show it took more than a month for social workers to provide vouchers to buy beds and bedding. There’s no record that she ever received vouchers for toys or dressers. She was told she couldn’t use taxis to take the children to medical appointments, but should manage on the bus. There’s no indication social workers did anything to help her get six small kids with behavioural issues to their essential doctor’s visits.

There was no respite care. No parenting training. No counselling or support. Upon approval of a kinship care home, notes forensic psychologist Leslie Block, who authored the report, a caseworker is supposed to support and monitor the care provided. That didn’t happen.”

Little girl’s death highlights desperate need for foster-care reform
[Edmonton Journal 10/24/11 by Paula Simons]

Update 3: “The Crown wants an Edmonton foster mother who fatally beat a four-year-old niece in her care to serve six more years in prison, while the defence suggests probation.” [Probation for murder?]

““Crown prosecutor Jim Stewart argued a 12-year sentence would be fit, but reduced it by five years and three months for the time the woman spent in pre-trial custody.

Stewart said two “hugely aggravating” factors in the case are the degree of the “prolonged” 2009 assault, which led to extensive bruising, broken ribs and a fatal brain injury, and the fact the woman did not call for medical attention for several days, despite obvious signs of distress.

“Her selfish decision to not report the horrible thing she did to (the girl) condemned (her) to death,” said Stewart.

Defence lawyer Lisa Trach said a five-and-a-half-year sentence would be appropriate and noted her client will have already served it by the April 11 sentencing date.

However, she agreed a further period of probation would be warranted so the woman can get counselling.

Trach argued her client loved the children she was caring for and said the reason for the delay in calling for help was she was “in denial over committing the horrible act.”

Trach noted she treated the dying girl for flu symptoms, saying “her actions were not those of a rational person.”

She also spoke of her client’s terrible upbringing, including physical abuse and early drug exposure, and argued the province is partially to blame for what happened due to the foster mom getting little help from the  authorities. [She NEVER should have been approved to take these children in!]

The child killer calmly apologized in court Tuesday.

“I’d like to say sorry to my family for what I’ve done,” she said. “I regret it every day of my life. I think about (the victim) every day. She was my niece. They trusted me to take care of her and I failed. I’m sorry.”

The woman pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Oct. 17.”

Killer foster mom should serve 6 years in prison: Crown
[Edmonton Sun 3/27/12 by Tony Blais]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

The 27-year-old woman, who cannot be identified, was handed a seven and a half year prison sentence Wednesday.

The 4-year-old child, who was the niece of the accused, was found dead in a west-end home in January 2009.

The victim, and five of her young siblings were put in the care of the woman months before the child’s death.

The woman pleaded guilty to manslaughter, for assaulting the child, and then failing to seek medical care for the child in the days that followed.

The case had the foster mother’s defence lawyer questioning the Ministry of Children and Youth Services for the decision to put all six children in the same house.

“I don’t think I could parent six children, let alone these children under any circumstances,” Defence Lawyer Lisa Trach said. “It seems to be that she did not get very much support at all.”

She was given double credit for time served – after three years in custody; she has two more years ahead of her.

The Crown Prosecutor had asked for twelve years.

The death of the young girl will also be at the centre of a fatality inquiry; however the date for that to begin has not been set.”